Dr. Steve Yuen's blog on the use of emerging technologies in teaching and learning.

Stanford Engineering Everywhere

Following Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s lead in OpenCourseWare and Yale University’s Open Yale Courses, Stanford University is offering 10 free online courses in computer-science and electrical-engineering courses this fall. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) provides the Stanford experience with students and educators around the world. SEE offers online access to the school’s popular course sequences: the three-course Introduction to Computer Science taken by the majority of Stanford’s undergraduates and seven more advanced courses in artificial intelligence, robotics, and electrical engineering.

It is quite simple to take any of the SEE online courses. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection. SEE courses include lecture videos, reading lists, handouts, quizzes, tests, and even a social network for other SEE students. The course content is offered through a variety of media and formats, including videos on YouTube, iTunes, Vyew, WMV Torrent, and MP4 Torrent. The courses will be covered under a Creative Commons license. Stanford encourages students and educators to use SEE course materials in their own classrooms or for noncommercial purposes. A Creative Commons license allows for free and open use, reuse, adaptation and redistribution of Stanford Engineering Everywhere material.

According to Stanford, SEE encourages educators and students from across the world to “form virtual communities around the classes.” The SEE program could be expanded to include more courses if it proves popular and successful. This is a terrific news for students and educators around the world who can’t afford Stanford’s tuition and want to experience the world class education, they can take Stanford up on the offer. They can now take classes with Stanford students and download lecture videos, handouts, assignments and even exams, almost exactly the same course material available to Stanford students. But of course a big difference is that non Stanford students won’t get any credit.

Interested in computer science, I found the SEE webpage recently. One thing I noticed though was there wasn’t a forum/community where SEE students could meet and get help or discuss the courses. Well, there is now.

I started this community specifically for that reason. “Come Learn With Us” is provided by http://www.jauckerman.com. A place to hangout and discuss the Computer Science courses.

Creative Commons is one of the most exciting innovations to come into education that I have ever experienced. I certainly don’t have any problem with legal protection of intellectual property, but it seems as if the Internet is being used for its true (or higher?) purpose in the free and open transmission of data that is enabled by Creative Commons. It is equally exciting to see that Stanford is embracing this notion as well. Stanford certainly has a pedigree and one might assume that Stanford would opt for more restrictive entrance to protect its lofty reputation. It is truly heartening and harkens to the true spirit of education (and as such does much credit to Stanford) that they “encourage educators and students from across the world to ‘form virtual communities around the classes’.” That the course content is offered in a variety of formats and that they are contemplating adding additional courses is really encouraging for the state of education. These Creative Commons endeavors may be the first steps to global collaboration and serious breaks in economic barriers to higher education. High school students participating in the STEM curriculum could take an SEE course as a special project or for extra credit and at the same time, it could spark their interest in continuing their education. America needs more scientists and engineers to compete in the global market and programs like this will reach more potential students than traditional, closed registration, “stick and brick” institutions of learning. If I had a child in the school system now, I would highly encourage them to investigate Creative Commons learning opportunities.